Originally Posted by
SK AAR
The CPH-ORD route is currently operated by 1 aircraft (leased aircraft from HiFly Malta). A bird strike at ORD will obviously affect the return flight to CPH but also the CPH-ORD flight the following day. This is unavoidable knock-on effects from the bird strike and will most like be considered extraordinary circumstance exempting SAS from paying compensation for cancellation. It is not reasonable to expect to expect SK to have a spare A330 or A359 at CPH (or ARN or OSL) during high season where utilization is stretched to max to accommodate as many pax as possible. That means that no comp. is due for the cancellation of CPH-ORD the following day.
Expenses should be reimbursed in full. There is probably some reasonable explanation that only around half of it was reimbursed initially.
If you look at the verdict that SK quotes, it is clear that the airline is only off the hook as they flew in a technician and took the necessary steps to minimise impact. Saying our fleet is stretched live with cancellations is not really making the highest efforts to avoid delays. And that SK has scheduled more flights than their fleet can manage and have to bring in external parties to operate the flights is not an extraordinary circumstance, but a chosen business strategy.